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Announcements on earlier this month that the Spanish government was to reduce spending in another sector of the Spanish economy would hardly have made for happy reading on the pages of El Pais and El Mundo. Nevertheless the news was that huge spending cut backs would be made on solar energy with tariffs designed to attract uptake with reductions of up to 45 per cent.

Draft proposals from the Ministry of Industry announced that spending cuts would reflect those seen on feed-in tariffs in Germany and Italy where the tightening of purse strings has necessitated the removal of what are seen as non-essential expenses.

Indeed, Spain will be reducing tariff payments for roof-based systems by up to 25 per cent but for large ground based solar installations a much more eye watering 45 per cent, news not likely to impress installers or investors.

Feed-in tariffs work by offering producers of renewable energy fixed, premium rates for the energy they both use and feed back into the grid. The energy firms are obliged by legislation to purchase the renewable energy at the premium rates the costs of which are spread across Spanish energy consumers. The Spanish government has therefore been able to justify cut backs explaining that they are a means of controlling rising Spanish Energy Bills.

The problems of course is that while consumers may make some savings on their monthly electricity bills, cut backs at this period could cause serious long term harm to an area of the Spanish economy which has been booming over the last decade.

With news this week that growth of the UK solar market has finally over taken that of Spain, it highlights once again the essentiality of tariff mechanisms as a way of creating long term attractiveness for investors in the face of struggling economies.



As usual, it seemed that the UK was falling behind competitors from abroad from a reluctance to look to the future and fully back green energy through strong legislation. Solar markets in Spain, Germany and Italy to name but a few in Europe, attracted investment through incentive schemes in the form of feed-in tariffs. With the UK government finally introducing the Clean Energy Cash Back scheme in April 2010, it now appears that the financial mechanism is in place to help UK solar investment catch up with more mature markets overseas.

According to many within the industry, the UK now has everything in place to become a player in the global solar market.

“The UK market for solar PV is growing explosively. This is because the FITs [feed-in tariffs] bring a huge new raft of players – the energy users – into the market; broadening it way beyond the traditional energy industry. All renewable power sources are benefitting, but solar is doing best because it is so easy to apply,”

Commented Philip Wolfe, Director of Ownenergy and leading exponent of feed-in tariffs.

With the tariffs working as a means of incentivisation for investors who were once reluctant to invest in what was once an extremely expensive field, the tariffs offset costs and greatly improve the attractiveness of green energy investments. In all countries where tariffs have been introduced there has been a massive uptake in investment with individuals keen to take advantage of legislation-protected investments with healthy ROIs.

With regards to potential for the solar PV industry, Edwin Koot CEO of Solarplaza stated that,

“Having experienced the benefits that FITs have to offer, European countries are now looking to capitalise on the emerging UK market. We can already see signs of this happening for our upcoming UK PV Conference: where 67% of delegate registrations are from international companies, compared to just 33% from the UK.”

However, warning that in the current climate the UK solar PV industry is unlikely to achieve overnight success, Clive Collison of South Facing said,

“It will take time to develop the UK market. Currently there is a lack of knowledge so education of potential customers and businesses is needed. Right now, very few people understand the feed-in tariff system and the opportunities to their full extent.

It took Germany, Spain and Italy three years after the start of their feed-in tariff to reach a substantial market scale. No doubt a similar market development will occur in the UK. That is why conferences like the UK PV Conference are important, to educate the business community and customers and build the business infrastructure. There will be plenty of business for everybody.”

Consultants Ernst & Young have released their annual global renewable energy country attractiveness indices with the big news being that China has knocked Germany from its number one spot, a position which they have enjoyed for the last seven years. The report indicated that in the lead of attractiveness are the US and China followed by Germany, India and Spain.

With various leading economies around the globe vying to become leaders in the renewable energy sector the Ernst & Young indices provides a tangible demonstration of how attractive the competing markets are to investors based on the measures taken by the respective governments. The commitments by the Chinese government to slow climate change through the reduction of carbon emissions has certainly been reflected in their rise in the investment indices.

Once the pariah of the international community with regards to fighting climate change, the Beijing government has demonstrated through legislation that they have a very earnest desire to slow the effects of climate change.

Recently the Chinese government announced 1.8 GW of solar installation throughout the vast country with investment incentivisation coming in the form of the Golden Sun subsidy scheme designed to transform the Chinese solar market from a purely manufacturing base into a world leader in solar PV installation. This, the report indicated was the key feature in China moving up the table from sixth place in 2007 to the joint number one position enjoyed today.

The report will come as an early Christmas present for the nations perched in the top 5 positions as it gives investors a comprehensive assessment of the most viable markets in which to invest based on criteria such as existing infrastructure, incentives and location benefits.

With the success of China as a potential solar PV market, analysts in the UK will not have missed the direct correllation between government action and market attractiveness, something which the report explicitly highlighted. The UK enjoyed limited success, moving up one point to sixth, an increase based on limited government action taken so far in the form of the creation of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the introduction of the Energy Act in November 2008 and the recent announcement of the Clean Energy Cash Back system, essentially a feed-in tariff to be introduced in April 2010.

The UK’s position of sixth could be bettered by the next indices published by Ernst & Young at the end of 2010 but will depend greatly on the initial successes of the UK market in the light of the newly implemented tariff system. At the present moment members of the lobby group We Support Solar are arguing that the UK government will have to increase the tariff rate if the UK is to compete with the emerging solar tiger economies with manufacturing bases much closer to home.

For more information on the Ernst & Young global renewable energy country attractiveness indices, please visit:

http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Industry_Utilities_Renewable_energy_country_attractiveness_indices/$file/Industry_Utilities_Renewable_energy_country_attractiveness_indices.pdf

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Spain has been one of the most successful countries in the public promotion of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E) , particularly wind electricity. This support has been based on a feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme. Although the basic structure of the system was implemented in 1998, it has been modified in 2004 and 2007.

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